Bioregionalism, Permaculture, and Ecovillages

Published in April 2013

Edited by Joshua Lockyer and James R. Veteto

In order to move global society towards a sustainable “ecotopia,” solutions must be engaged in specific places and communities, and the authors here argue for re-orienting environmental anthropology from a problem-oriented towards a solutions-focused endeavor. Using case studies from around the world, the contributors—scholar-activists and activist-practitioners— examine the interrelationships between three prominent environmental social movements: bioregionalism, a worldview and political ecology that grounds environmental action and experience; permaculture, a design science for putting the bioregional vision into action; and ecovillages, the ever-dynamic settings for creating sustainable local cultures.

Joshua Lockyer is Assistant Professor of Anthropology at Arkansas Tech University where he is co-creating a bioregionally-based undergraduate anthropology program. James R. Veteto is Assistant Professor of Anthropology at the University of North Texas. He is the director of the Laboratory of Environmental Anthropology and the Southern Seed Legacy project and is currently president of the Culture and Agriculture section of the American Anthropological Association and Research Associate at the Botanical Research Institute of Texas

“Amplify Action: Sustainability through the Arts”will be presented in Spring 2012 by the Skylight Gallery, a department of BSRC’s Center for Arts and Culture. The exhibition is conceived to demonstrate how arts, culture and media are powerful catalysts for social change, and aims to engage neighborhoods in a dialogue about sustainable living, making healthy consumer choices, and taking environmental action. Works in the exhibit will directly and indirectly examine the different components of sustainability such as, but not limited to: ecology, economy, equity, environmental consciousness, resource conservation and efficiency, agriculture, architecture, infrastructure, environmental justice and health.

The exhibition “Amplify Action: Sustainability through the Arts,” is a collaborative project of the Pratt Center for Community Development, Pratt Institute’s Initiative for Arts, Community and Social Change (IACSC), and the Bedford-Stuyvesant Restoration Corporation. The project is a part of the Arts Implementation Fund of the Pratt Center, recently established through a generous grant from the Rockefeller Foundation’s NYC Cultural Innovation Fund. The projects of the Arts Implementation Fund, in partnership with community based organizations in Bedford-Stuyvesant and Cypress Hills create projects that support the execution of visual and performance art works created by local artists, artist groups, and artists abroad that promote a civic dialogue about community sustainability.

There are at least three research networks looking at environmental and cultural issues currently meeting in programmes of workshops.

CORE, the research network on Creative Research and the Environment, was launched last week in the Art Space Nature rooms at Edinburgh College of Art. This network spans fine art and landscape architecture and is linked with a larger research project on Antarctic Earth Sciences. Post on launch.

Values of Environmental Writing Research Network takes its cue from Robert Macfarlane’s 2009 comment, “Many of the new activists are young, and a significant number are recent graduates, emerging from universities across Britain and moving immediately into environmental action. It would be fascinating to know what literary works have shaped the message and medium of their politics…”

ecoartscotland is a resource focused on art and ecology for artists, curators, critics, commissioners as well as scientists and policy makers. It includes ecoartscotland papers, a mix of discussions of works by artists and critical theoretical texts, and serves as a curatorial platform.

Call for participants

in the framework of:

THE FIRST INTERNATIONAL SUMMER SCHOOL

Of Arts and Sciences for Sustainability in Social Transformation

1. Overview

The International Council for Cultural Centers (I3C: www.international3c.org), the International Network Cultura21 (Cultural Fieldworks for Sustainability: www.cultura21.net) and the Latin American Network of Art for Social Transformation (Red-LATS: www.artetransformador.net/) are organizing, in collaboration with the Center for the Study of Culture and Society (CSCS: www.cscsarchive.org) the first international summer school of arts and sciences for sustainability in social transformation. The event is planned for early August 2010 in Bulgaria, in the beautiful Balkan mountains (Gabrovo).

We are seeking participants in the summer school! As the number of participants will be limited to a total of maximum 30 persons, you are encouraged to apply as soon as possible!

Are you an artist, a practitioner or an academic working for or interested in the advancement of sustainability and social transformation (i.e. goals of social justice, ecological awareness and environmental action, human rights and self- determination, cultural and biodiversity, among others)? Are you looking for inter-or trans-disciplinary methodologies, and for inter-cultural dialogues? Are you interested in the relationships of bodily movements and/or of other sensuous/sensorial relationships to local places? Do you want to explore how movement also relates to place and community development?

If you replied yes to one of the previous questions, the international summer school may be the right place for you! Read further:

Information about inexpensive accommodation near the location of the summer school will be provided to the selected participants.

The application procedure and conditions are described on the following page.

2. Application

To participate in the summer school, you must apply, providing us with the following documents:

Personal data: please indicate your name, gender, age, full address and contact details, country of origin, country of current residence, and educational/professional background (in a few words).

A Résumé or CV

A letter of motivation where you explain why the summer school appeals to you, what you are expecting to benefit from it (for your research, your art, your activities, etc.). Please mention what you hope to learn at the summer school, and what you may be able to bring/teach yourself, based on your prior experience.

Personal motivation and relevance of the applicant’s domains of interests to the general field of the summer school, i.e. sustainability in social transformation through action-research

Notification of final decision: April 5th, 2010

3. Conditions

All participants at the summer school are required to participate to the entirety of the summer school.

No scholarships are available from the school’s organizers, but we can provide cover letters upon request (in case you are applying for financial support from a third party).

Accommodation and travel costs will be covered by the Summer School only for a very limited number of participants from non-European countries. If you are requesting support for your accommodation and travel costs, please include a request letter, with a costs evaluation. Please note that we recommend that you also look for funding near third parties, as we will be able to support only a very limited number of participants.

Our little blog has recently recovered from a little death and a little upgrade. Right now I’m in the middle of the Earth Matters on Stage EcoDrama Symposium (and working on plans to build an eco-art-blogger treehouse with my buddies Ian Garrett and Mike Lawler. You’re invited, Matt Merkel-Hess!). There’s a lot to cover, including a greenmuseum-sponsored panel about Bioremediatve Performance, but for tonight I’d like to repost this overview of a Bay Area eco-art shout-out.

First off: the inaugural exhibit for Art at the Cheese Factory, Terrior: A sense of place. Guest Curated by Patricia Watts (and Guest Juried by gm’s Sam Bower), the exhibit includes photos, paintings, installations and performances by a breathtaking array of environmental artists. Yes. The exhibit continues until June 21st for those of you in the Marin area. Check out the website for a nice cranial buzz.

In San Francisco, New Langton Arts just opened an exhibition from Pae White called In Between the Outside-In. The central piece is a trapezoidal greenhouse/room framing a video screen. The projected image is a series of curling lines and unfolding patterns based on three-dimensional scans of an oak tree, a wild raspberry bush, and a manzanita grove. Those guys were all outside of Nevada City in California. White’s all about blurring the lines between site and non-site, I hear. The exhibit is up until the 18th of July.

Lastly: the Brower Center just opened. It’s a new center for environmental action with its own exhibition space in Berkeley, CA. Currently they’re running a series of photos by Sebastiao Salgado entitled Then and Now. They are big and black and white and stunning. They are people in environments. Upstairs in the space is an exhibit about activist David Brower, the building’s namesake: it’s what greenmuseum.org’s Sam Bower has been spending most of his time on these days.

There’s been a buzz of eco-art activity out here in the SF Bay Area that I’ve been meaning to shout-out, Matt Merkel-Hess-style. It’s good work, and yes. Here we go.

First off: the amazing ladies at ecoartspace put together an inaugural exhibit for Art at the Cheese Factory, Terrior: A sense of place. Curated by Patricia Watts, the exhibit includes photos, paintings, installations and performances by a breathtaking array of environmental artists. That’s Emily Payne above installing in a lake. Yes. The exhibit continues until June 21st for those of you in the Marin area. Check out the website for a nice cranial buzz.

In San Francisco, New Langton Arts just opened an exhibition from Pae White called In Between the Outside-In. The central piece is a trapezoidal greenhouse/room framing a video screen. The projected image is a series of curling lines and unfolding patterns based on three-dimensional scans of an oak tree, a wild raspberry bush, and a manzanita grove. Those guys were all outside of Nevada City in California. White’s all about blurring the lines between site and non-site, I hear. The exhibit is up until the 18th of July.

Lastly: the Brower Center just opened. It’s a new center for environmental action with its own exhibition space in Berkeley, CA. Currently they’re running a series of photos by Sebastiao Salgado entitled Then and Now. They are big and black and white and stunning. They are people in environments. Upstairs in the space is an exhibit about activist David Brower, the building’s namesake: it’s what greenmuseum.org’s Sam Bower has been spending most of his time on these days.